


Lost

by theprincesjewel



Series: Lodral Happenings [3]
Category: Lodral, Marvel (Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-01-18
Updated: 2014-01-18
Packaged: 2018-01-09 05:23:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1141978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theprincesjewel/pseuds/theprincesjewel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Part 3 of Lodral happenings, wherein Loki is in prison, out of prison, and taking over Asgard's throne yet again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lost

It had seemed almost like a strange dream, really. He’d been taken to an antechamber. The chains were exchanged for others, the gag removed. Food and drink were brought. Loki ate and drank delicately, uncertain even now that his body would accept the meal. He continued to heal as he waited, easier now in this realm so filled with magic, with shackles that were even less confining than those he had worn. By the time he was taken before Odin, he felt almost well.

He was completely unable to keep his hurt from showing, and his poor mother bore the brunt of it. He had expected to be asked why he had behaved as he had, to be able to tell the man who had raised him what had happened after he fell.

He should have known the man wouldn’t care. Wouldn’t ask.

What little he had was stripped from him. His armor and clothes exchanged for sleep pants and a loose tunic, his few remaining weapons taken, and only Loki left of the name he had carried for so long. He had known he was not an Odinson, but… to have the name taken from him… to have his mother taken from him…

He spent his first two months of captivity more often in a healing sleep than awake and aware. The third month, he was groggy and lethargic, still tumbling over himself within his own mind, still battling Thanos’ control.

By the end of the first year, he had illusioned himself to appear as he usually did, and begun having conversations with the illusory vision of his mother that arrived once a week. Even after several months, he was uncertain if it were he or his mother that was causing the vision. His magic served him in the cell, but his control had slipped during his time with Thanos. Sometimes, things simply happened.

He had furnishings now in the form of a large, comfortable bed, several small tables, chairs, a footstool. Amenities in the form of drinking horns, books, parchments, quills and inks graced the tables. The bed had been there when he had wakened. The others had… simply appeared one day.

Meals were delivered by magic. Hygienic concerns never happened. Loki had turned that particular aspect over repeatedly, trying to determine how the magic worked to keep the prisoners from needing to void after eating. He had plenty of time to try to learn that particular bit of magic. Aside from the illusion of his mother, no one came to see him.

Not his brother, to demand to know why he had done as he had. Not Sif, or Vostagg, or Hogun, to gloat over his imprisonment. Not Fandral, to mouth words he was expected to say. The guards ignored him just as he ignored them.

The books changed occasionally. So did the bedsheets. No one brought him clean clothes, but then neither his illusory ones nor the ones he actually wore ever got dirty due to the cell’s magic. He practiced the magics he knew, continued to heal, and continued to study the way the prison magic worked. There was no particular reason for him to escape.

No particular reason to stay, either, aside from the fact that he still wasn’t entirely free of Thanos’ hold. And the lack of bullying. And the free food. Comfortable bed. Uninterrupted study time. Utter lack of teasing during the non-existent weapons practice.

Though, he did get bored. Very bored, actually. Bored enough to invent new magics. Bored enough to test his magic against that of the cell at least once a month, despite the need to rest for at least two days afterwards. So the jailbreak that happened months and months after his incarceration was quite amusing. Being left in his cell was not, though he did suggest the stairwell to the left despite that.

At least one of the escapees might actually make it out. Strong as it was, Loki expected it would have no difficulty. He made himself comfortable and went back to his book, having determined that he was not to be released that day. He heard his brother’s voice, and he heard Fandral, but no one came to visit him.

Until the next day.

A tiny burst of magic left him. That was all anyone was allowed to see of the raging destruction that followed. No one heard his screams, no one heard – or saw – him crying like a baby. It wasn’t until after he collapsed, exhausted, against the wall that anyone came. Even then, it was days later. Loki hadn’t bothered to move, not that anyone knew. His illusory self prowled or perched on the illusory furnishings that had replaced those he had destroyed during his emotional release.

Thor came then. Spoke to the illusion for such a short time before demanding that he drop his illusions. Loki did, without question or hesitation, though why he did not know. It was most unlike him. He listened to the big blond’s offer silently. It was not much of an offer at all. A few days outside the cell to help Thor stop the man who had murdered his mother, and then to be imprisoned in it once more.

“What makes you think you can trust me?” he asked, actually curious. His brother couldn’t possibly believe that he wouldn’t try to escape being returned to the cell, could he? The answer shredded his heart, but he managed to hide the majority of his hurt, and kept it from his voice when he asked, “When do we start?”

He switched places with a copy when Thor’s back was turned. Thor didn’t notice, as usual. Of course, Loki had had plenty of time to practice. The double did not dissolve when someone touched it. It could touch, be touched. Be handcuffed, even.

Sif threatened his double, as did Volstag. Fandral, he did not see, not until they were in the little ship the blond had brought for their rescue. His magic very nearly failed him then, for Fandral had changed. This man was not the lover he had been separated from for three long years. Not this man who didn’t even glance at his double once, did not offer any sort of greeting, who did not even jestingly threaten him as the others had. He had changed physically as well.

Loki’s eyes devoured him, noting all the changes. There were many. Too many to be explained by their three years of separation. Loki released a small tendril of magic, intending to examine his lover that way. There was a foreign magic around Fandral, one that repulsed his and left him with a sick headache and the desperate need to cling to the edge of the craft so that he would not fall from it.

Thankfully, his constructs were now sturdy things capable of more independent movement. Loki recovered after his illusory self cast the spell that made it seem as if it had removed Thor’s hand. That, he noted, was a truly poor bit of magic. There should have been a good deal more blood. Malekith was a fool to be taken in by such a shoddy display.

He removed the animating magic from his double after a convincing death scene. Thor bought it. Jane did not, until a foot planted between his legs brought no response. Loki wasn’t best pleased that his brother simply left the body to rot. He shifted to the guise of an Asgardian soldier, and built a proper bier since he could not make a funeral ship on this world. As the body burned, he accepted the returning magic released from it.

He took news of his “death” back to Odin, but made no attempt to conceal his voice. His once-father did not doubt his death, and retired almost immediately to his quarters. Loki followed, and watched as the Elder God put himself to bed. A warm golden glow, one familiar to the young god, soon sprang up around the bed.

“Odinsleep,” he murmured. “Poor timing on your part, but you did not get the rest you needed the last time, did you? Worry not, Odin Allfather. I, the unnamed child born of Laufey, adopted and discarded by Odinson, and once King Loki of Asgard, will ensure Asgard does not fall.”

His body shimmered, taking on the aspect of the man he had once called father. Another shimmer of magic cloaked the room, making it appear as if the bed were empty. “It is the least I can do for Mother. Perhaps concealed in your form, I will not be so swiftly betrayed.”

Loki caught up Odin’s spear, and made his way to the broken throne. He had a realm to rule, a palace to rebuild, and a kingdom to ready for the coming war with Thanos. Thor would take care of Malekith. The idiot had threatened his brother’s light-o-love, after all, a thing that Loki had learned many years ago not to do. Loki seated himself, giving orders as to repairs and deployment of troops while he watched his brother’s battle.

He was not in the least displeased when Thor refused the throne. Thor was not yet ready. He would be, but not yet. Loki would prepare things for him, and keep the throne for his brother. His brother, who would learn to be the kind of king that Asgard needed, not the kind of king their – his father had been. No, when Odin woke, if Loki allowed him to wake, he would ensure the old man did not retake Asgard’s throne. The time of Odin was past. The time of Thor was to come.

But for now, Loki would do as he must to ensure his brother would receive a kingdom ready for him to rule, ready for him to lead into battle against the threat Loki knew was coming.

He could only hope he had enough time to do what must be done to prepare.

**Author's Note:**

> I saw T:TDW. I was not as impressed as I had hoped to be, and I'm afraid it shows. This one will now deviate from any storyline that Marvel planned, as I'm uninterested in waiting however long until Loki's next movie appearance, and would like to find out what happened to Fandral, and where his relationship with Loki is going to go now that Loki's free and on the throne once more.
> 
> This particular fic of the story will be multi-chapter, though until I find the bunny that suggested it might have an idea for the next chapter, there will be a delay in postage.


End file.
